All Articles in Apps

Chad’s excited. Why? TweekDeck for iPhone has just hit the App Store (iTunes link). Doesn’t look to be iPhone 3.0 Push Notification enabled just yet, but the hallmark feature of Twitter Groups and multiple, columnar dashboards (looks similar to tabs in Mobile Safari) are all in place. And you can “shake to refresh”.

Best of all? It’s free!

If you try it out, let us know how it works for you, and how it compares to your current favorite Twitter client.

Engadget Mobile brings word that the iPhone Dev-Team has shown off a working Jailbreak and Unlock — now dubbed UltraSn0w — via Qik video.

The Jailbreak and Unlock should be available on Friday, though TiPb’s guess is it may not work on the new iPhone 3G S, since it took 6 months to unlock the iPhone 3G via yellowsn0w and longer for the 2nd generation iPod touch via redSn0w. We’ll likely know more when the Dev-Team gets some quality time with the new hardware and figures out what, if any, new cats Apple has brought for the mice to game…

TUAW brings word that Wolfram|Alpha, the revolutionary computational engine from the creator of Mathmatica, now has an iPhone (and iPod touch) optimized version available via http://www.wolframalpha.com/iphone.

Confession: aside from typing in “are you Skynet” and “do my taxes” I’m not quite sure how to use this new beastie, but if you’re smart enough to query up an answer to “what’s the second coolest smartphone, BlackBerry or Palm Pre?”, let us know your results!

Marco.org (via Daring Fireball) shares as much as he can:

The last session of WWDC ‘09 yesterday was about publishing on the App Store. The content of sessions is under NDA, so I can’t tell you what it was about. So I’ll tell you what wasn’t in it: the audience Q&A session that succeeded nearly every other WWDC session and usually provided invaluable access to Apple employees and useful additional knowledge to attendees. The session itself blew through its lightweight examples quickly, ending 45 minutes early. The majority of the audience was clearly there for the Q&A. As people lined up at the microphones around the room, the presenter abruptly showed a simple slide with only “WWDC” in plain lettering, thanked us for coming, and bolted off the stage. The Apple engineers, usually staying around the stage for one-on-one questions, were gone. The lights came up instantly, and it was the only session that didn’t end in music. The audience was stunned.

So are the rest of us.

Apple?

PCalc developer James Thomson is one of our favorites because he not only makes great apps, but he seems to love doing it, and always figures out new, positive, and productive ways to get our attention.

This time around it isn’t just the release of an iPhone 3.0 compatible version of PCalc for iPhone ($9.99 - iTunes link) that includes support for copy and paste (and a couple of new vertical button layouts, one for engineers, one for programmers), it’s how he built one version of the app that supports both iPhone 2.2.1 and iPhone 3.0 at the same time. An iPhone version of Apple’s “universal binary” concept, as it were.

We’re not sure he’s the first to do this — and according to Twitter he isn’t either — but we hope he does write up the process when the 3.0 SDK NDA (non-disclosure agreement) lifts so other developers can do it as well. It’s an elegant solution to say the least.

Now to see if we can not only paste some complex calculations… but understand them!

9to5Mac (via Gizmodo) shows Push Notification already working in the latest version of Tap Rap Revenge [Free - iTunes link] when run on the iPhone 3.0 GM developer seed. Gizmodo, of course, raises the pertinent question:

It certainly isn’t the most creative use of background notifications—the messages only pop up when you’re challenged by another player—and I’m already wondering how, when all kinds of apps have this capability, the iPhone’s exceedingly simple notification system will scale.

Since Text Alerts don’t tack, a new one obliterates the one before it. What happens when an urgent IM is replaced by “Hey, dooooooode, can haz rock out?!” Sure, badges remain, but then you have to go looking for them…

Matt Miller, editor of our sibling-site NokiaExperts, got an advanced look at Documents to Go for iPhone as part of his ZDNet gig, and has already gone live with an amazingly detailed review: Review: Documents To Go raises the bar for iPhone word processing.

Matt loves the low price point, the Word editing, and Exchange support. Obviously, he misses the Excel editing support, but knows that’s coming.

Check out his full review for more, including a huge screenshot gallery, and overviews on editing, syncing, and Exchange support.

Thanks Matt!

Documents to Go is finally — FINALLY! — available for the iPhone. But, it currently only supports Word editing, no Excel (though they promise it via a free update), no PowerPoint (though no one else is doing that either). Yet, there’s a higher end version that includes Exchange Attachments integration!

148apps has the details, but the short and long of it is, there are two distinct versions now available:

• Documents to Go (Microsoft Word editing & Desktop sync) ($4.99 - iTunes link) allows you to create and edit Microsoft Word documents, view Excel, Powerpoint, iWork, PDF, and “other files” (presumably what’s natively supported), and includes a 2-way Wi-Fi desktop sync utility for Mac & Windows.
• Documents to Go with Exchange Attachments (Microsoft Word editing, Exchange attachments, & Desktop sync) ($9.99 - iTunes link) offers all the above plus the ability to receive, edit, and send Word docs, and view other docs attached to Microsoft Exchange emails (if you don’t have an Exchange account, don’t get this version!)

It looks like they’re still using their homebrew cut, copy, and paste solution, and with iPhone 3.0 just days away, the timing is a little awkward. Any developers Documents to Go on iPhone 3.0, let us know how that works for you. (We anticipate a 3.0 happy update ASAP)

The most important question is, however, all of you waiting on Documents to Go, is this what you wanted? Worth the wait? Sound off in the comments!

Screenshots after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, Google had an iPhone optimized version iGoogle. Then Christina Warren from Download Squad caught them in the act of taking it away. Now, our sibling-site Android Central tells us it’s returned. Confusing saga, good update:

Today, we’re excited to roll out an improved beta version of iGoogle for the iPhone and Android-powered devices. This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers. Note that not all gadgets — like those with Flash — will work in mobile browsers.

Are you an iGoogle user? If not, is this enough to interest you? Either way, if you check it out, let us know what you think!

Tim Daley let us know via Twitter that his app, What Would Chuck Do?, was rejected by Apple’s iTunes App Store for the most terrifying reason imaginable. Because they said so:

Thank you for submitting WWCD - What Would Chuck Do to the App Store. We’ve reviewed the Application and, consistent with the criteria considered in our approval process, we have chosen not to publish this application. As you know, Apple reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject an application for any reason.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

While as a publisher, this is absolutely within Apple’s rights, as a platform that needs to nurture and maintain the support of both its developer and user base, it’s suicidal. And what’s worse, it’s stupid. In this day and age, especially for a company as connected as Apple, poor communication causing bad PR is as astounding as it is inexcusable.

Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue need to pull out whatever flame-thrower they marched the halls of MobileMe with last year and turn them full-throttle on whatever passes for the current App Store rejection policy. If any reviewer even thinks of typing “because we said so” they should immediately be transfered to whatever passes at Apple for Siberia.

It’s getting tiring to keep typing this, but developers deserve clear, consistent guidelines, users deserve top notch reviewers to make sure we get the best technical quality in apps, and Apple deserves a happy developers and PR experience that matches the phenomenal success of the App Store.

It’s such an easy thing to fix, which makes it all the more stupefying Apple not only hasn’t fixed it, but hasn’t even reached out to developers to show they understand the frustration level and are working to fix it.

For more examples, see TUAW’s recent reports from Christina Warren on MiniPops and Erica Sadu on iLaugh Lite.

Stupefying.